8 NHLers for Russia

8 NHLers for Russia

Worlds host gets first players from overseas

While the Russian national team continues its camp it expects the arrival of eight NHL players on Sunday.

Russian national team coach Oleg Znarok intends to check out as many players from the KHL as possible and continues to do so this week with pre-competition games against Slovakia.

When the team returns to its base Novogorsk at the outskirts of Moscow, some of the current players will be cut and eight NHL players will join the team with goaltenders Sergei Bobrovski, Semyon Varlamov, defenceman Alexei Yemelin and forwards Sergei Kalinin, Nail Yakupov, Viktor Tikhonov, Sergei Plotnikov and Alexander Burmistrov.

At the end of the month the Russians will play two more exhibition games at the 2016 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship venue in Moscow against Finland.